Mahlon Mitchell is not talking himself up as a candidate for governor. In fact, when the president of the Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin union received a civil rights award at the Voces de la Frontera 10th anniversary gala in Milwaukee Thursday, he didn’t mention the topic.

But others have in recent days, as something of a “Draft Mahlon Mitchell” campaign has stirred up and the press have begun to speculate.

And when I mentioned the prospect as part of my keynote address at the gala, the crowd of more than 400 roared approval.

In traveling the state, I have been struck by two things about the recall election that Gov. Scott Walker is all but certain to face next spring.

First, while the pundits and politicians are obsessing a bit about who will challenge Walker, the tens of thousands of activists are less concerned. Their focus is on gathering the more than 540,000 signatures needed to force the governor to face the voters. The energy for the recall is unprecedented, and it’s everywhere, from traditionally Republican Walworth County (where Walker was raised) to Kenosha (where activists plan to rally at midnight Nov. 14 to be first to sign on for the recall drive that officially begins Nov. 15) to Rhinelander in the far north (where there is talk of using snowmobiles to get petitions to remote areas).

Second, while most people would still like to see former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold run against Walker, there is a genuine openness to new names and new kinds of contenders. This is going to be a “change” election, and change elections often usher in new faces and new approaches.

That’s where Mitchell comes in. He’s never held public office, and really became a political player only when the governor attacked collective bargaining rights and the firefighters leapt to the defense of the labor movement. But he has impressed people with his commitment, passion and oratory.

Does that mean he’s ready to run for governor? We’ll see. There’s enough talk ? and even a “Wisconsin for Mahlon Mitchell” website ? that he will be drawn into the discussion along with more familiar names such as former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, state Sen. Jon Erpenbach and former Congressman David Obey.

What the talk of a Mitchell candidacy says to me is that Wisconsinites are open to a real change in direction from Walker’s careerist politics. That may not mean that Mitchell, a Madison Fire Department lieutenant and statewide union leader, runs. But it should suggest that this contest does not have to be defined by narrow notions of politics.

There are plenty of prospects ? former University of Wisconsin Chancellor John Wiley, Epic Systems founder Judy Faulkner, former Assembly Speaker Tom Loftus ? who could be considered by Democrats.

And remember, Walker could face a Republican primary. Just imagine if state Sen.

Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, decided to lead the charge to take his party back from the extremists.

Recall elections are supposed to open up the process, to spark the political imagination. That’s what’s happening in Wisconsin, where we have always known that the cure for what ails democracy is more democracy.

his path of destiny = 64 = Putting an end to [the Walker governorship].

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using the number/letter grid:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
A B C D E F G H I
J K L M N O P Q R
S T U V W X Y Z

Where:

A = 1 J = 1 S = 1

B = 2 K = 2 T = 2

C = 3 L = 3 U = 3

D = 4 M = 4 V = 4

E = 5 N = 5 W = 5

F = 6 O = 6 X = 6

G = 7 P = 7 Y = 7

H = 8 Q = 8 Z = 8

I = 9 R = 9

Mahlon Mitchell

4 38533

the most important thing he can do (MC), what he must do/has to do (ML), and how he obtains his heart’s desire (ML) all = 43 = Friends. Colleagues. Peers. Groups. Crowds. Celebrating. Congratulations. Good times.

how he appears to the world = MH = 48 = Purpose. Guidance. Direction. Mission. Doing what he is here to do. His calling in life.

A simmering labor dispute in Minnesota could erupt into a full-blown state government shutdown just in time for the July 4th holiday weekend if a $5 billion budget gap isn’t closed by the end of Thursday.

Across the border from where Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wis.) launched his assault on public sector employees’ collective bargaining rights, a conflict over Minnesota’s budget threatens to temporarily lay off more than 20,000 state workers. Only this time, Gov. Mark Dayton, from the state’s Democratic Farmer Labor Party, is facing off against intransigent Republican legislative leaders.

State parks and zoos are scheduled to close, potentially infuriating thousands of Independence Day campers, revelers and barbecuers. If the Thursday midnight deadline is not met, the state capitol would shut its doors. Non-critical functions like road construction would screech to a halt, creating an economic ripple effect that would raise the state unemployment rate by as much as a whole percentage point.

“This is going to be a tough shutdown,” said David Lillehaug, an attorney for the governor, on Wednesday.

Dayton is proposing progressive income tax increases to fix the state budget, which faces a huge gap over the next two years, while the GOP is demanding further spending cuts. Both sides said they were attempting to compromise. But time is running out, and even if an agreement is reached Thursday, it may not come soon enough to avoid a partial shutdown.

If the shutdown occurs, “It’s the largest single layoff that’s ever occurred in the state of Minnesota,” said Jim Monroe, head of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE). Monroe estimates that more than 8,000 of his union’s members would be temporarily out of a job, and the effects on the state as a whole would be “almost unimaginable.”

The budget battle fight has taken on the ideological cast of a clash between an unapologetic progressive, Dayton, and Tea Party-favored state legislators. The state’s House and Senate are both dominated by Republican majorities. David Schultz, an adjunct professor at the Hamline University School of Law in Saint Paul, Minn., told HuffPost the showdown is the result of “a real enormous game of constitutional chicken.”

Dayton, he said, is “really trying to put a lot of political pressure on the Republicans to compromise or cave in — whatever term you want to use.”

At the governor’s request, a judge ruled on Wednesday that, in the event of a shutdown, government staffing would have to be stripped down to core critical functions. Basic care at state-owned nursing homes and hospitals would continue, as would most programs funded by federal dollars like Medicaid, but many state functions — from the lottery to highway rest stops — would be closed down.

The cost to the state, which would still incur expenses for many employees even while they were out of the work, would likely run into the millions. A much more limited shutdown in 2005 under then-Gov. Tim Pawlenty cost the state an estimated $12 million dollars. (That standoff ended with a modest cigarette tax increase and both sides claiming victory.)

Budget negotiations have proceeded under a “cone of silence” agreed to by both sides.

Katharine Tinucci, a spokeswoman for Dayton, told HuffPost on Wednesday that while “both sides have been reporting that there’s been progress made,” no deal had yet been reached. That situation remained the same as of Thursday morning despite talks that went through the night. Dayton’s priority in the negotiations, Tinucci said, was “a balanced solution of cuts and raising taxes on the richest Minnesotans.”

Spokespersons for the Republican House and Senate caucuses did not respond to requests for comment.

Dayton has proposed making $1.8 billion in cuts to the state budget, delaying payments for the state’s education system and raising another $1.8 billion by adding a fourth bracket to the top of the state income tax. Republicans, for their part, have resisted any tax increases, preferring instead to balance the budget solely by cutting funding for education, health care, social services and other state programs.

Nan Madden, the director of the non-partisan Minnesota Budget Project, told HuffPost that one likely result of the Republican budget would be to simply kick some of the tax burden down the road from the state level to the local level, where property taxes could rise to fund local priorities like K-12 schools. The debate, she said, was over whether “we raise revenues based on the ability to pay, and very transparently at the state level,” or “at the local level and through the property tax.”

State labor leaders and social service providers said the Republican budget’s cuts to government aid would be devastating for people who have already been buffeted by the economic downturn. Minnesota has an unemployment rate of 6.6 percent — relatively healthy compared to other Midwestern states, but still above the 4 to 5 percent rate it maintained for much of the 2000s.

Eliot Seide, the executive director of AFSCME Council 5, expected that between 8,500 and 10,000 members of his union would be laid off in the event of a shutdown. “Our members are anxious and concerned. They’re concerned about their own livelihoods,” he said.

Minnesota’s big public employee unions, like MAPE and the AFSCME, have lined up in support of Dayton’s tough stance — even though their members could be put out of work if no budget compromise is reached. Dayton, they said, is being forced to fight by hard-line Republican leaders who have refused overtures towards a compromise.

“The Republican legislature has demonized and denigrated public workers for the last five months. They have put ideology in front of responsible governance,” Seide said. “This is the most extremist legislature. I mean, they are just out of touch. They are just so extremist that the cuts they’ve proposed are so devastating and draconian.”

More people than those just directly employed by the state would see their livelihoods threatened under the Republican budget. Even with higher property taxes at the local level, many other areas would be hit. The state’s higher education system, a major generator of jobs, would lose funding. Health care money and funds that allow disabled individuals to live independently would also be slashed.

Terry Bicknell, a child care provider in St. Cloud who is an associate member of the SEIU, said that both a shutdown and the proposed Republican budget would threaten her livelihood by cutting off access to the state funds used by her clients. She would lose half her income in the event of a shutdown, she said.

“If I can’t make my house payment, I may have to shut my door,” Bicknell said. “And I know the job market out there sucks big time, and I may be flipping burgers, but I also can’t put my kids out there on the street.”

Bicknell thinks she could lose her job — and she believes that the families she assists would also be forced to choose between caring for their children and working. Several have been using child care to work their way off public assistance. One mother recently found a job and, at almost the same time, had an infant. “It’s tormenting to some of these parents, they’re like, well now what am I going to do?” Bicknell said.

Schultz, the political scientist at Hamline, believes that the shutdown will happen, and that Dayton will ultimately have the upper hand. “I think the Republicans have to have one eye on the fact that if they want to stay in the majority … they need to blink,” he said. “But the problem is that they can’t blink. They’re trapped by their own rhetoric: As soon as they blink they’re going to get challenges from the Tea Party, from the fiscal conservative wing of their party.”

So far, Schultz said, the polls show that voters are with Dayton. He believes that when a shutdown comes, it is the state’s Republicans who stand to lose.

“If I can draw a contrast to like Obama, for example, Dayton’s willing to fight. And one of the criticisms that you sometimes see of Democrats is that they don’t know how to fight,” he added. “I think here Dayton is fighting really hard and seems to have out-positioned the Republicans.”

1 + 26 +2+0+1+1 = 31 = his personal year (from January 26th, 2011 to January 25th, 2012) = Challenges. Tests. Opponent. Catalyst. Reaction. Risk. Controversy. Contention. Provocateur. Struggles. Strife. Squabbles. Quarrels. Antagonism. Rivalry. Outdoing yourself. Rising to the challenge. Stirring things up. Stirring the pot. Provoke a reaction. Getting a rise out of someone. Raising a ruckus. Things get out of hand. Prove you wrong. I’ll show you. In your face. Bring it on. C’mon. Here comes trouble. It takes two to make a quarrel. Gettiing into the mix. Out of spite. Working at cross purposes.

——————————————————————————————

using the number/letter grid:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
A B C D E F G H I
J K L M N O P Q R
S T U V W X Y Z

Where:

A = 1 J = 1 S = 1

B = 2 K = 2 T = 2

C = 3 L = 3 U = 3

D = 4 M = 4 V = 4

E = 5 N = 5 W = 5

F = 6 O = 6 X = 6

G = 7 P = 7 Y = 7

H = 8 Q = 8 Z = 8

I = 9 R = 9

Mark Brandt Dayton

4192 291542 417265 64

his path of destiny / how he learns what he is here to learn = This sucks.

—————————————————————————————–

using the number/letter grid:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
A B C D E F G H I
J K L M N O P Q R
S T U V W X Y Z

Where:

A = 1 J = 1 S = 1

B = 2 K = 2 T = 2

C = 3 L = 3 U = 3

D = 4 M = 4 V = 4

E = 5 N = 5 W = 5

F = 6 O = 6 X = 6

G = 7 P = 7 Y = 7

H = 8 Q = 8 Z = 8

I = 9 R = 9

Mark Brandt Dayton

4 65

what he must do/has to do = MO = 46 = Patiently accept delays. Making history. Historic.

how he obtains his heart’s desire = MN = 45 = Common sense is uncommon. Is the glass half empty or half full? Do it yourself. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Educate yourself. Figure it out. Maximum effort. Giving it your all. Giving 110%. All you can do is all you can do. Work smarter – not harder. Working long hours. Investing time and energy. Toughen up. Deep impact. Powerful force. Maximum intensity.